New clinic provides immunization information to Sacramento area parents

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —

UC Davis Children’s Hospital will open a new clinic this month to provide information and counseling to parents who are considering choosing not to immunize their children.

Dean Blumberg

The Immunization Information Clinic will start Jan. 14 and will be open Tuesday mornings in the Glassrock Building, 2521 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento.

The clinic was created in response to the new state law, effective Jan. 1, 2014, which requires parents to get a medical practitioner’s signature to enroll their children in school without immunizing them.

Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis, started the clinic to assist parents without a primary care provider or those with a health provider who refuses to sign the form.

“Parents are making an important decision for their loved ones, and we want to offer them resources and let them know about the risks and benefits,” said Blumberg, who will be staffing the clinic along with pediatric nurse practitioner Lisa Ashley. “Having this dialogue with parents is valuable, even if the parent still opts to not immunize.”

According to the California Department of Public Health, the number of kindergarten students in the state who are not vaccinated due to a personal belief exemption has increased annually over the past decade.

To make an appointment, contact 916-734-3112. Appointments must be scheduled in advance. The cost of a visit will be $25 per child, and health insurance will not be billed.

UC Davis Children's Hospital is the Sacramento region's only nationally ranked, comprehensive hospital for children, serving infants, children, adolescents and young adults with primary, subspecialty and critical care. It includes the Central Valley's only pediatric emergency department and Level I pediatric trauma center, which offers the highest level of care for critically ill children. The 129-bed children's hospital includes the state-of-the-art 49-bed neonatal and 24-bed pediatric intensive care and pediatric cardiac intensive care units. With more than 120 physicians in 33 subspecialties, UC Davis Children's Hospital has more than 74,000 clinic and hospital visits and 13,000 emergency department visits each year. For more information, visit children.ucdavis.edu.